Eric Carle Author Study

This week we began our Eric Carle Author Study. We love reading books written by this author and creating art work in "Eric Carle" style! We read a book about the moon titled "Papa Please Get the Moon for Me" and created our own moon pictures.... 

We read "The Foolish Tortoise" and painted turtles....

We loved "A House for Hermit Crab" and had so much fun creating our crabs...

And we ended our week by reading "Mister Seahorse" and designing these awesome seahorses! Along the way, we added in some quick science learning about all of these animals. We have more Eric Carle books ready for next week....and then in the early part of May we will begin our insect life cycle unit. Our caterpillar larva should arrive during the first week of May!

In our social skills lessons we talked about using calm down strategies to manage strong feelings. We heard and discussed stories about children who were sad, worried or frustrated - we identified the feeling or zone and role played things they could do to feel better/get back in the green zone. Many children were able to share that they need to use their words/get adult help when frustrated or sad. This is important because our students need to be able to tell us when they have a strong feeling so we can help them. In addition, naming a feeling (saying, "I'm sad" or "I'm mad about my work") can help decrease the intensity of the feeling for children.